


Persephone

by Kai_Heartnet



Series: Bullets and Numbering [5]
Category: Greek and Roman Mythology
Genre: Demeter's still crazy, F/M, In a motherly kind of way?, Persephone's Point-of-view, So it's a wee bit flowery at times
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-23
Updated: 2016-07-18
Packaged: 2018-05-15 20:02:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5797921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kai_Heartnet/pseuds/Kai_Heartnet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She's the queen of the Underworld, a ray of light in an otherwise black abyss- and she loves it. She loves the chill that creeps up her skin whenever she's alone, and she loves the echoes that reverberate off the empty halls. She loves calm that seeps into everything there, and she loves the man who has wrapped himself in such a place. She loves Hades.</p><p>[Sequel-ish to Hades but can be read by itself]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

There is a beauty in silence that I could never manage to capture. It wraps around me like a careful hug, and I wonder how I was ever allowed such a thing. There is no urgency in silence, no demand. There is only the calmness that comes with emptiness, and I am impressed I haven't ruined it somehow.

Silence has never been a friend of mine. My life is filled with movement and madness, and it is only in arms ice-cold that I can experience something different.

Hades is different.

He is like the calmness that is silence, and he's just as beautiful. His arms hold me with an almost fearful reverence, and I wonder how I was ever allowed such a thing.


	2. Never Be Enough

**Summer**

 The sky is an almost bloody red as the sun sets, and it dyes the flowers around me a sanguine shade. It turns white lilies to rubies, and I'm certain it turns me into something resembling a corpse. I believe this because the king of the Underworld himself is watching me as if I am one of his shades. Absently, I wonder how long he has been there, but my mind is too wrapped around the beauty that is Hades.

His eyes are dark and veiled. He's covered in black clothing, and I wonder if it's to be intimidating or to hide within his shadows. His dark hair is held back by his crown, and it seems like another type of disguise. I smile at him, and he's gone in the next instant.

* * *

 

"Apollo!"

I grimace, and Mother looks personally offended.

"You can't stay single forever," she glares. "If you don't marry someone soon, Zeus will choose for you. Would you prefer to be shuttled off to those _Nords_?"

"I'd prefer if my mother didn't try and sell me off for her own gain," I laugh, though there isn't any real humor in it.

"Dense girl. I carried you myself, and I raised you myself. Why shouldn't when you marry I get something for myself?" she challenges, mainly because she always challenges. If it is not confrontation with her, then it is passive-aggressive attacks. I learned long ago that it is better to let her think she has her way than to fall victim to one of her arguments. Even when you won, you never really did.

I sigh and thank her for her advice, and then I retire to my flowers. At least they gave conversations worth listening to. They speak of a dark king.

* * *

 

Maybe it's a month, or maybe it is longer, when I see Hades again. Time doesn't flow so clearly. The sky is hidden behind the high ceiling of Olympus' throne room, and Hades is having what passes as a debate with his brothers Zeus and Poseidon. I don't know what begins the fight between them, but my arrival seems to end it.

Poseidon isn't like any other I have met. He's charming like all the others, but there is something more that dances behind his eyes that sets him apart. He is never quite there most of the time, even when he is. His smiles are always open, though nothing can be seen behind them, and his words always seem to hold something more than what is said. It makes being around him difficult, and he knows it. It is why he excuses himself so quickly, and a third of the tension leaves with him.

"This conversation is over," Zeus says with the authority he normally never has to use among the others. With Hades, it seems a definite necessity. The latter glares.

"For now."

Hades is gone before Zeus can properly get out his, "Permanently," and I am left with the king of us all.

"Persephone," he states, and his voice holds an exhaustion that is impossible for him to feel. "I can only imagine what news you bring from your mother."

* * *

 

The next time I see Hades, it's because I'm in the Underworld.

I'm not dead, and I'm certainly not dying, but I needed an escape that I knew I could count on. Not even Mother would come to the Underworld, and I knew it was the only peace I would receive.

The Underworld had been described to me, but no description could do it justice. It was cold and hollow, but also warm and full. Colors danced around and shapes shifted, and nothing that was there was ever there again. It was maddening and beautiful, and so unlike anything I knew. It's king was no different.

Hades was before me almost as soon as I had descended the last stair, and if he was ever curious, I suspected the expression he wore then showed it.

"Daughter of Demeter."

" _Persephone_ ," I correct because the last person I wanted to think about at that moment was Mother. She would be furious when she found out where I'd gone, and the longer I could avoid thinking about it, the better. "Is that how a king greets a guest?"

"It's how _I_ greet someone who is breaking and entering," he retorts, but there is something resembling a smile dancing on his lips. It's so faint, I could mistake it as nothing.

"The door was open," I smiled because maybe he didn't know how to.

"It's not really made to keep people _out_ ," he gives, and my smile grows.

"Then as one of the very few who has come in, I think it at least fitting that you treat me to a cup of... What do you serve here in the Underworld?" I ask, and Hades looks as if I've grown another head. It could be plausible. I've had that kind of day.

"You know any who eats or drinks within this realm will be stuck here for an eternity."

I continue to smile, mostly because he makes spending an eternity with him sound like a labor instead of the adventure it probably is. Still, I understand.

"Will I be stuck for an eternity if we talk for a while?"

"I'm sure you have Olympians you can talk with," he replies before turning to leave.


	3. Breaking (Sweet)Hearts

When Hades speaks, it is like ash and air are flowing between us. They form his words and make things more viable than the speeches of the Olympians.

He tells tales of heroes whose glory ended at the tip of a blade, and he recounts promises made to him for a few more days in the mortal realm. He doesn't understand Man, but he admits that he doesn't try to. We spend hours or days this way- talking about the most amazing or mundane things, but so often I am left again in my world of too-bright words that hold dark intentions, and Hades returns to his den of shadows.

* * *

"Where do you go these days?"

Athena's voice is a strange thing, more like clinking glass than an actual voice. She rarely speaks to me, though she has often spoken at me. I am used enough to her that I can read the order in her voice even when she doesn't give it, but I have refused her long before now.

"With my flowers."

"Your flowers have wilted, which would never happen in your presence," Athena informs me, and I roll my eyes despite the immediate glare I get in return.

"Perhaps I'm trying a different method with them?"

Athena continues to glare.

"They've gotten too much sun."

"Flowers need the sun to survive, child."

The glare I give her is one I inherited from my time in the Underworld where fallen heroes have rarely accepted their fate.

"Not all flowers need the sun."

* * *

Mother is on a roll today. She has set up several audiences with minor deities of other pantheons that she believes will grow into their power. Her favorite was a blustering samurai who claimed to have felled an eight-headed dragon.

"Zeus would not be happy to know to whom you are reaching out to, Mother."

She did not miss a beat as she quickly patted my hand before going back to her list.

"Zeus will see the benefit of my machinations once they're clear," she assures.

"I'm sure Prometheus thought the same," I huffed and realized my mistake far too late.

"How do you know about Prometheus?" Mother asks, her attention trained on me now.

"It's a popular tale...among the mortals," I lie.

"When have you been around mortals? I thought your sacred flower field was far from their civilizations."

"They've begun moving closer," I invent, and I know I'm walking a dangerous line. Fortunately, she seems to accept this and drops her attention back to her list of possible suitors.

"Perhaps you should also think about moving that ridiculous thing while you contemplate who you want to marry."

"You sound as if you're giving me a choice," I retort.

"You sound as if it needs to be," she shoots back.

I simply leave.

 


End file.
